Bible Study (a Different View)

[Tyson]

So it's the first century and you are an adherent to the Christian faith. The leader of your faith has died, but you refuse to accept it as such and like with so many other cults before and after, you keep his memory alive. Your cult maintains the idea that he was killed, yes, but in unprecedented fashion he actually rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, but the cult also teaches he would come back very soon. He simply went away to prepare mansions and in the interim left the cult behind to recruit fresh blood into the fold in an effort to save their souls and prepare them for the coming judgment.

 

The driving force behind the cult's thriving success (in part) is that the days you are living in are believed to be the "last days." The leader will soon return for his "wise virgins." His coming is secret and it is within the best interest of all to be prepared when he comes back because those who are not will be cast into outer darkness where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth." So with this comes a sense of urgency, a desire to be in right standing when the cult leader returns to separate the "wheat and tares."

 

This is what you preach to the unrepentant, the to throngs that come to the market places, to those on the sea shores and to those at the temple. Your leader is the true son of God, risen from the dead and soon to be revealed in his triumphant return to save the chosen and punish the wicked!

 

*Insert the sound of a scratched record here*

 

Time passes and passes and passes. The leader fails to show. Life goes on as usual. The delay brings out the scoffers who begin to mock asking, "hey' so where's this character you said was coming back? I mean, you were so up in our ears with this idea he was coming back and blah blah blah, but as far as we can tell, nothing's changed. Where's this dude?" So what is your response? You think up of an ingenius and clever loophole. You tell them, "hey I know you guys might have thought when we said he was coming soon we meant like in OUR times. Yeah, I know it sounded like that because we know you all are not stupid, but hear this. God has a different clock than ours. One day with him is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day! So that can mean he can come tomorrow, next week, next year or 50 billion years from now because 'soon' can mean just about anything you want it to mean. get it?"

 

*Crowd of scoffers looks on with the look below:*

 

 

 

 

The sensible people go home shaking their heads at that one, but the other cult members cheer you on claiming that your explanation was inspired by the spirit of the leader. You all go home to wait on. You don't know it at the time, but you will die and never see the return you talked so much about.